Published: Saturday, October 26, 2013 at 01:57 PM.

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LA GRANGE — South Lenoir looked to stretch its first half lead to six points with a field goal at the end of the second quarter, but a blocked kick and the subsequent 66 yard return by North Lenoir lineman and punter Adam Williams gave the Hawks the lead and ultimately their fourth straight victory in the North-South Pigskin Classic Braggin’ Bowl, 16-3 Friday at Bullock Field.

With Friday’s 50th renewal of the rivalry game, the Hawks improved their all-time record against the Blue Devils to 33-17.

After holding the Hawks to a 3-and-out on its opening drive, the Blue Devils marched down the field to set up a 37-yard field goal by Kyle Huffman.

The lead stood until South Lenoir attempted to double the margin in the waning seconds of the half. However, the kick was blocked and scooped up by Williams, and returned for a touchdown to give the Hawks an 8-3 lead.

The big score given up by Blue Devils is the third in as many weeks bookending the half to result in a touchdown. Goldsboro’s opening run of the second half in Week 1 of East Carolina 2A Conference play, as well as Ayden-Grifton’s second half kickoff return last week were both converted into touchdowns as well.

“The way our defense played all night long I really don’t know if they would have scored if we hadn’t had that blocked kick,” Blue Devils coach Ken Grantham said. “It was a tremendous play.”

The Hawks, who were plagued by penalties in the first half, rectified the problem for the second half. North Lenoir only committed one-five yard penalty after committing 14 for a total of 110 yards during the first two frames.

LA GRANGE — South Lenoir looked to stretch its first half lead to six points with a field goal at the end of the second quarter, but a blocked kick and the subsequent 66 yard return by North Lenoir lineman and punter Adam Williams gave the Hawks the lead and ultimately their fourth straight victory in the North-South Pigskin Classic Braggin’ Bowl, 16-3 Friday at Bullock Field.

With Friday’s 50th renewal of the rivalry game, the Hawks improved their all-time record against the Blue Devils to 33-17.

After holding the Hawks to a 3-and-out on its opening drive, the Blue Devils marched down the field to set up a 37-yard field goal by Kyle Huffman.

The lead stood until South Lenoir attempted to double the margin in the waning seconds of the half. However, the kick was blocked and scooped up by Williams, and returned for a touchdown to give the Hawks an 8-3 lead.

The big score given up by Blue Devils is the third in as many weeks bookending the half to result in a touchdown. Goldsboro’s opening run of the second half in Week 1 of East Carolina 2A Conference play, as well as Ayden-Grifton’s second half kickoff return last week were both converted into touchdowns as well.

“The way our defense played all night long I really don’t know if they would have scored if we hadn’t had that blocked kick,” Blue Devils coach Ken Grantham said. “It was a tremendous play.”

The Hawks, who were plagued by penalties in the first half, rectified the problem for the second half. North Lenoir only committed one-five yard penalty after committing 14 for a total of 110 yards during the first two frames.

“We got a lot of flags that really stifled some momentum,” Hawk coach Calvin Sutton said. “Whenever we got stuff going we seemed to have a flag that got us off schedule.”

The defensive battle continued through the third quarter and neither team was able to move the scoreboard until North Lenoir recorded a safety with 2:55 remaining in the game.

Forced to onside kick the safety punt, South Lenoir recovered, faced with moving the ball 69 yards to tie or take the lead. After a pair of sacks, one which included a fumble for a loss of 12 yards, the Blue Devils went to the air. But Huffman’s pass was picked off by Larry Boskey, who returned the pick 23 yards for 6 points.

Key to North Lenoir’s defensive effort was linebacker James Durant.

“One of his attributes is that he’s shifty,” Sutton said of Durant. “He’s one of the quickest off the ball I’ve ever seen. I think he showed that tonight; he’s a playmaker.”

South Lenoir would go three-and-out on its next possession and North Lenoir would be able to kneel to end the game.

“At the end of the day you need all three aspects of the game,” Sutton said. “But defense and special teams kept us in this game and gave us a shot at winning. Luckily we were able to pull this one off.”

The win moved Sutton to 4-1 as a coach in the rivalry and ties for fifth all-time in the series. He was 4-0 as a player.

South Lenoir finished the game with 195 total yards of offense. The Blue Devils were led by Noah Stroud, who registered 118 yards on 25 carries.

Stroud took over the duties from Dion Jones, who hurt his foot on the second possession of the game. Jones returned for a five yard reception in the fourth quarter.

Donyae Hopkins led the Hawks with 89 yards on the ground.

Both quarterbacks, Huffman for SL and Landon Baker for NL had three completions each, for 32 and 37-yards respectively.